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Atmospheric science

Enigma of the recent methane budget

Nature volume 476, pages 157–158 (2011)Cite this article

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The previously increasing atmospheric methane concentration has inexplicably stalled over the past three decades. This may be due to a fall in fossil-fuel emissions or to farming practices that are curtailing microbial sources. See Letters p.194 & p.198

There has been a recent unexpected variation in the atmospheric concentration of methane (CH4) — the second most important anthropogenically modified greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Its growth rate has declined almost to a standstill in the past three decades, despite more than doubling since pre-industrial times; signs of renewed growth are only now starting to appear. What has caused the puzzling behaviour of this atmospheric trace gas? In potentially contradictory studies on pages 194 and 198 of this issue, Kai et al.1 and Aydin et al.2 attempt to answer this question.

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Figure 1: Changes in global atmospheric methane over the past three decades.

References

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  2. Aydin, M. et al. Nature 476, 198–201 (2011).

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  1. Martin Heimann is at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, 07701 Jena, Germany.,

    Martin Heimann

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Heimann, M. Enigma of the recent methane budget. Nature 476, 157–158 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/476157a

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